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My Chemical Romance

Okay so this week I’m going to talk about the first album I remember buying myself. Of course I’ve had albums bought for me as a child but I count this one as I physically picked it up and went to pay for it, under my own initiative. If that makes sense?

Anyway, my first abum was Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by My Chemical Romance, which I bought in 2010, a few months after it came out. I first got into My Chemical Romance earlier that year, and initially didn’t like them. However this had to do with just starting high school, and trying to fit into the popular groups, therefore convincing myself I liked pop music/chart music…which I knew deep down I didn’t. Then Dad started to listen to them, playing Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade on a regular basis, and I gradually began to like them. I remember the music video for ‘Na Na Na’ being released, and after watching it I said, ‘Oi Dad! That weird band you like have released a new video!’. After listening to that song and a few others, I grew to love the album and MCR in general.

The upbeat sound of Danger Days, with its electronic elements, commentary by Dr Death-Defying (aka Steve Righ? from Mindless Self Indulgence), and strong concept and story-line, all combined to make this (in my opinion) a perfect album. ‘Summertime’ was even played at my Nanna’s funeral, and now I listen to that song with reflection and memories of her. It’s pretty emotional. What I loved was that MCR still included an element of humour in this album, which is prevalent in the last track, ‘Vampire Money’. Everyone kept wanting them to make a song for the ‘Twilight’ franchise, which Gerard Way was not interested in, so made an anti-twilight song highlighting that people wanted them to make the song just to get the money.

Danger Days made me start to love music and get a real passion for it, giving me a whole new genre to explore, instead of forcing myself to listen to the commercially churned out chart music I thought I had to listen to. It lead to me going through different phases in the next few years, discovering new bands and following MCR in the last few years of their journey, even their World Contamination Tour, which I will write about in the next blog.